Alcatel's colorful Android 'Pop C' phones pop up

Alcatel's new Pop series of phones includes some eye-searing shades.
Alcatel

Alcatel's family of entry-level Android phones is growing, welcoming at IFA 2013 quartet of new members with confusingly similar names into the expanding "Pop" series. You've got the Alcatel One Touch Pop C1, C3, C5, and C7. "C" what I mean about confusing?

As a general rule, the C1 is the smallest and simplest of the four smartphones, accruing size and hardware strength as you get to the One Touch Pop C7.

All four devices run Android 4.2 and target the young and young-at-heart with a curvy, youthful design that, in some incarnations, looks similar to Samsung's Galaxy S3 phone. Each of the phones has an FM radio and 4GB of internal storage. Expandable memory options up to 32GB for the series will help make room for photos and apps. Most have dual-SIM or single-SIM options.

Let's break them down.

Pop C1
The 3.5 inch HVGA screen (480x320 pixels) on this candy-colored phone is best suited for slim, nimble fingers that can deftly navigate the smaller screen. Under the hood is a dual-core 1 GHz processor. Its 2-megapixel camera and 1,300mAh battery place this as the least expensive of the bunch.

Pop C3
With a larger 4-inch WVGA display (800x480 pixels) that can support two-finger gestures, the C3 slowly ratchets up the hardware features. You'll find a 3.2-megapixel camera on here, a 1.3GHz dual-core processor, and Bluetooth 4.0. There's a front-facing camera onboard as well, and an aftermarket option to get a flip cover. It, too, has a 1,300mAh battery.

Pop C5
Moving up the ladder, the C5 has a larger, much more colorful display that can support all 16 million colors (the previous two models support 265,000 colors.) Measuring 4.5 inches and with a 854x480-pixel resolution, the C5 runs on a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and packs a modest 5-megapixel camera. There's also a VGA camera up front above the lens, and a slightly larger 1,800mAh battery. Storage still tops out at 4GB, but you have that extra 32GB-ready slot for more.

Pop C7
The largest and most well-appointed of the bunch, Alcatel's One Touch Pop C7 has an extra-large 5-inch screen with the same 854x480-pixel resolution as the C5. That means the screen may not look as sharp as on the C5.

The only quad-core device of this litter, the C7's CPU has a 1.3GHz clock speed. There's also a 5-megapixel camera onboard, with 720p HD video capture, and a VGA front-facing camera. Battery capacity is also a little grander on this device: a 2,000mAh capacity.

What's up in the air
Alcatel hasn't made it known where the Pop phones will pop up, or for how much, but my guess is that they'll be budget-priced global devices that could come in starting at around $150 unlocked and working up from there as the phones' model numbers climb.

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Alcatel One Touch Pop C

About The Author

Jessica Dolcourt reviews smartphones and cell phones, covers handset news, and pens the monthly column Smartphones Unlocked. A senior editor, she started at CNET in 2006 and spent four years reviewing mobile and desktop software before taking on devices.